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David Akka, managing director at Magic Software Enterprises (UK, Eire, and the Nordics), looks at pure-Cloud platforms, their relevance in the ‘real business world’, and the issues currently facing ISVs looking to deploy on multiple platforms.

As more and more software vendors evolve their technology into hosted environments, Microsoft has also joined the club with its announcement of the Azure Cloud platform.
 
For those speculating on the future of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and the Cloud market, Microsoft’s move represents a strong support of the validity and future potential of the Cloud model.
 
Cloud environments such as Azure are designed to replace one-for-one current on-premise environments, and include Cloud operating systems along with a range of application platform infrastructure, usually based upon the same programming languages as the original on-premise environments to make the migration of skills easier for developers and organizations to handle.
 
However, from a business point of view, these Cloud-based environments assume that all application development is a zero-sum game; you either need a Cloud model, or you need a traditional Client/Server model. There’s no in-between. They don’t consider an overlap in customer demand and they don’t provide an overlap in capabilities.
 
So how does this ‘pure’ or ‘total Cloud’ philosophy fit in with the real-world application development needs of enterprise and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs)?
 
First consider the forecasts; according to experts, on-premise Client/Server applications will not disappear anytime soon. Forrester predicts that up to 60% of enterprise applications will remain on-premise even by 2018. That’s a significant figure, and means of course, that pure-Cloud platforms can cover, in the most optimistic scenario, only 40% of the entire spectrum of applications in the business arena, and that’s only a decade from now. What happens until then and beyond?
 
There are a number of important issues that continue to hold back the full adoption of the Cloud model in the enterprise space, including securing the Cloud, and the psychological need for people to remain in control of their applications and data. As one CEO puts it, "Enterprises are not ready. They will not trust their most valuable intellectual property to something outside their control," whether it’s Microsoft, IBM or Google (Yacov Wrocherinksy, CEO of Infinity Info Systems).
 
ISVs have an additional take on Cloud Computing. For them, moving to the Cloud represents a financial as well as business dilemma, as they currently operate and earn the bulk of their revenues from licensed Client/Server applications.
 
If a typical enterprise software Cloud/SaaS seat were to cost around £100 to £250 per month, then the same seat could have been sold on a perpetual basis for around £2,000. An ISV would have to wait almost two years to earn the same revenues that a single on-premise sale would generate.
 
And that of course, assumes that all existing customers would actually want to move to a Cloud application. What of those customers who wish to remain with their on-premise model? Some existing customers uncomfortable with the idea of their data being shifted to the Cloud would undoubtedly move to another vendor, incurring a substantial loss to the ISV as the original supplier.
 
For ISVs and other software providers then, it remains important to develop and run both a Cloud/SaaS offering and the existing Client/Server applications together - cost-effectively. 
 
The problem with the new generation of Cloud-only platforms though, is that they force ISVs into the awkward position of having to choose between the two deployment modes.
 
ISVs will be faced with the migration effort of porting software from an existing on-premise application to the Cloud. And if they want to continue offering a Client/Server version, they will have to learn to live with the financial burden and complexity of maintaining and servicing two application models - not an appealing scenario even in the best of economic climates.
 
The answer to these challenges may lie in a new breed of Cloud/SaaS-Enabled Application Platforms (SEAP), which provide for the full spectrum of application development and deployment; on-premise Client/Server, Rich Internet Applications, SaaS, mobile applications and browser-based Rich Internet Applications. These Cloud/SaaS enabled application platforms allows both SaaS and Client/Server application models to be built from the same codebase, for the same development effort and maintenance cost.
 
ISVs would then be able to create one application which could be deployed in a number of different ways to satisfy both their on-premise needs and their Cloud ambitions.
 
Considering the substantial cost and maintenance benefits of Cloud applications, a pure Cloud development and deployment environment may be relevant to many enterprises and ISVs looking to reap the full benefits of Web deployment. If so, then the growing range of Cloud platforms will enable developers to build applications while saving their organisation the costs of operating system hardware and maintenance.
 
But should enterprises and ISVs in particular seek to maintain their on-premise footprint in a world where Client/Server applications continue to play a substantial role, while at the same time cost-effectively carving out new markets with a Cloud offering, then a hybrid-SEAP platform such as Magic Software’s uniPaaS would be a wise consideration.